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Comment by stevenrace | Hacker News Reader

After my 13" MBP was stolen, I brought my CR-48 out of hibernation and have been using it as my primary machine for nearly 6 months.

It is indeed a great computer, but I can't help thinking a used Macbook, Thinkpad, or the plethora of netbooks on the market would better serve even the most avid of hackers.

May I ask what puts you off with it's current incarnation, the Chromebook? It 's only $200 (and up). The external branding can be resolved with a $5 can of 'Plasti-dip', a screwdriver, and a bit of time. You'll end up a with a black, rubberized finish similar to the CR-48.

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I have been looking at Samsung's ARM chromebook. It looks like it might be the best of my options right now, but I would really like a higher-resolution screen, even if that meant a bigger screen size. (Every laptop is 1366x768 these days...)

Ah, that's understandable.

To make better use of the smaller screen real estate, you may wish to look into using a tiling window manager (dwm, xmonad, etc) coupled with a 'full screen' browser like Conkeror which nets another 100px vertically by not having a tab/navbar.

I've been meaning to try a tiling window manager. Right now I'm working with Unity, Chrome, and either Vim or Geany depending on my mood.

If you aren't in a hurry, you may want to wait and see if Google's Pixel turns out to be real. I know that most people initially thought it was fake, but since then someone has found interesting stuff in Chrome's code.

It may very well be fake, but if it isn't, it's probably gonna be worth waiting for unless you need something right now.

The Verge says this about the Pixel: "Google’s greatest advantage is that it doesn’t need bleeding-edge specs to build a high-functioning computer." That could be exactly what I'm talking about.

Frustratingly, the Samsung Chromebook is $249 in US, but £229 in UK. ($249 is £158).

The Acer chromebook is $199 in US, but £199 in UK. ($199 is £126)

The UK prices do include our sales taxes (VAT at 20%), but still.

The perfect option for you is to buy a Thinkpad T430U and install Chrome OS on it. It's remarkably similar to the CR-48 with regards to hardware design, it's $600, and it's a Thinkpad.

Which means you can use it as a breakfast tray when you're at a business summit, as a bludgeon when intruders come into your home, as a bulletproof plate if you live in a ghetto, as a riot shield if you're a journalist in Syria, and also as a skateboard if your car is broken.

Or, if you really want, you could use it as a really good, durable computer.

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